Nightwish
by dib07
Summary: In the beginning there was only rivalry between them. However, after a horrific accident that started off as 'mere training fun' their lives are turned upside down in an instant, and Goku struggles with the idea of losing the one he thinks of as his friend. Warning: dark story ahead. Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z. Vegeta angst.
1. Chapter 1

**Nightwish**

By Dib07

**Foreword:**

**Sorry if the lore isn't quite right, or the continuity in the series isn't right either. I tend to take a page out of DBZ and create my own vision from there: a paradox if you will, yet I do try to keep it to the series as much as possible. I will also try and keep them in-character too, but this may not be true all of the time. After all, character development does and should allow a few bends here and there, otherwise there is no development and things wouldn't be as interesting. So welcome to Nightwish and I hope you have a great, great read. The rating may go up later, depending. And please, PLEASE review. I love to know what my audience is thinking! And I make it my ambition to answer every review. As for what this novel is about, I don't want to give anything away except of course what is in the summary. ^_^ So enjoy!**

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**Chapter One: Downstream**

"Vegeta! No!"

The eruption of bright light spread out like gathering thunder, and then it burst in every direction. Goku was sent somersaulting through the air and only just managed to stop his own impetus by enveloping a yellow shield around himself. The energy continued to beam and bombard his shield and everywhere else. Bolts of forked lightning probed the ground before splitting the asphalt and pushing up cracks through the hub of the training dome. The MkII Android set its sights on Goku when its previous target had been obliterated. Goku dropped down the shield and zoomed to the hub. If he couldn't turn off this machine in time, and the main circuits blew up the Android would be frozen in 'attack commandus' and it would not stop or rest. Every target was deemed a threat: that was how it had been designed.

By Bulma no less.

Goku poured on a burst of speed and just avoided its cerise avalanche of energy as great balls of electric gathered and then crashed down. The sky was on fire.

With precise aim, Goku let off a gossamer lance of energy and it cartwheeled into the droid's arm. The arm exploded into a shower of metal, tubing and crystal fibres, but before Goku had even sailed past it in his hurry for the main hub, its arm had already grown back by way of rapid repair. The Android turned to follow Goku with its senses at the same time, and fired off more waves of the brightest green. Debris and bits of brick flew around like hail. Goku flew through the main doors and slapped a hand on the control panel. The metal doors had been built to serve as shutters, and they began to grind downwards too slowly. The saiyan rushed to the computer terminal that was already going haywire. Loose electric sputtered up in flushes and the screens were all fuzzy with white static. Goku grabbed the gage and snapped it back. The internal power began to wheeze and die. The shutters had nearly closed, but a great bubble of fire was burning through the ultra reinforced metal from the other side.

_Vegeta and his stupid ideas!_

With this last thought in mind, Goku pressed on a button marked _MANUEL OVERRIDE _followed by other labelled SHUT DOWN.

"_Shut down initiating_." Spoke Bulma's recorded voice sequence. Goku quickly overlooked the buttons. Had there been any that he had missed? He quickly saw a knob marked _SYSTEMS DISABLE _and hit it anyway.

The shutters doors, that had now met the floor with a heavy thud, were now melting. The Android's flat, laconic face shone through a gap as runny metal dropped like acid rain.

"_Shut down initiating. Standby_."

"Hurry up!" Goku screamed. The roof, also made out of ultra reinforcement that even a saiyan could not breach began to crumble and vibrate. The Android reached out and peeled back a wedge of hot metal as if it was mere cheese in its claws. The shutters were folding in, and melting away, enabling easy access for a killer robot.

"_Shut down initiated_. _Preparing to reboot in five..."_

Goku leapt forwards. The Android with its stoic expression and red orbs for eyes stood motionless in the runny passage that used to be a doorway, its hand held upward to deliver the finalizing blow. Its claws were curled round a crystal.

".._.Four..._"

Goku ran round behind it, his eyes quickly scrutinising its back for the tiny lever. He and Vegeta had been so thrilled and excited to text out the Mk II that neither of them had taken pains to register how to actually 'switch it off.' Bulma had given them stern warnings of manually needing to hit a lever should the robot need permanent shut down if the fail safes didn't work, and they had barely heard her. All Goku had caught at the end was: 'it's on its back.'

"_Three_."

Goku's eyes searched desperately. The robot's spine was tinged with diadems, indestructible gears and armoured coils so that it could move at any angle, and twist in any way. Higher up along its vertebra were strange diamond diadems that glowed with angry energy. In the middle of one such encrustation was a tiny lever.

"_Two. One_."

Goku grabbed the lever and pulled. The Android made a single step forward in the direction of the control panel that was still fizzing out. Only when the robot had stood quietly for a few more seconds did Goku breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank Kami that's over with. I can't believe we agreed to make it so impossible to shut down, even with an override. What were we thinking? Especially when I put the Earth at risk. That isn't like me." The idea had sounded sweet at the time. On the rare off chance during Goku's fiftieth birthday, Vegeta had responded to his invitation and before the night had barely begun, Vegeta got Goku high on alcohol. Now Goku had never drunk alcohol before. He didn't relish poisons that hurt the body, and he never saw any point to it. Vegeta: hardened to whiskey just so that he could prove a point, (he had enjoyed the privileges of living on Earth very quickly shall we say) he brought wine over, and him and Goku drank and drank. First it started off as competition, as many things usually did between them. Then as the tension cleared and the empty wine bottles started to pile up, Vegeta and Goku started talking (and sometimes laughing); about how good it was to build a Super Bot that would help train them: using some of Cell's technology combined with that of elumin crystal. Not only would it be a bitch to destroy, but a pain to even hurt. "What if it healed itself outright every time we damaged it? Come on Kakarott, even if you had half a brain you would know it to be a good idea. Then again, even if you did have a brain you would never know how to use it." Vegeta had boasted that night, his cheeks flushed and his eyes twinkling from the candlelight as they sat out in the garden stewing over half finished brandy. The wine had all gone at that point. Bulma had sat between them, writing down notes. The candle had fluttered in the near dark like a winking star. Goku had agreed, forgetting of course about proper risk assessment. And he couldn't just blame the alcohol warming his system. It was his saiyan instincts to keep going higher. Was there ever a ceiling to reach when you were a warrior? Maybe not, but Goku grew restless when he didn't fight. And saiyans needed an outlet. There were no psychopaths to fight, no demons to destroy. Earth was safe and had been for a long time. No wonder Vegeta was coming up with these ideas. He was bored.

"Okay." Goku had said while Bulma glanced at him from the top of her notebook. "Sounds like a great idea. And if we can't blow it up, we won't have to worry about breaking anything."

"Exactly." Vegeta said with a smile before downing a shot of whiskey.

Goku walked back to face the silent Android. The baleful red eyes in its skull had dimmed, and then faded. The smoke pouring from its shapeless claws was cooling. The melted sheets of metal were hardening too, and though the computers still screamed and hissed, it was over.

_What a mess._

A close instinct snapped in Goku's head. "Oh Lords! Vegeta!" He had been so driven my primal desperation to stop the android at all costs that he had forgotten all else about his former nemesis.

Without thinking he blasted through the hub's wall as it was faster than running round using the half melted doorways. Then he blasted forward like a bullet. It took him five seconds to reach the crater. Goku landed and peered down to view the hole. It was about five feet wide. The rest of the earth had been blasted into a disc shape. Some of it was still burning cobalt fire.

Goku cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered into the hole. "Vegeta?"

He stood, waiting, ruefully surprised when nothing happened. Why hadn't he come up by now? He was so used to seeing his psychopathic sidekick return after so many near-death eruptions and catalytic implosions. Then again, they had seldom experienced any fight as terrifying and as critical as this one had been – many had been close yes, like that fight with Frieza.

The only reason Goku had managed without being savagely beaten was because Vegeta had insisted that he fight the new edition of robot first to test it out, alone, and then Goku could try.

_Yeah, that went well._

"Vegeta!" Goku paused, knelt down at the mouth of the hole and tried to listen. When that produced nothing, he tried to sense for his ki. When he couldn't sense or feel that either, he panicked. "Vegeta! I'm coming!" Goku pushed his puzzlement to one side and dived into the hole. It was very tight fitting, and the rocks jut and sliced into his thighs and arms. He put up a shield and at once the earth around his form billowed out, allowing him easier passage. The hole kept going down. Soon it became a narrow, vertical tunnel. And though the bulbous yellow shield provided light, it still could not penetrate the robust blackness ahead. "Vegeta!" Silence met him, and not a whisper of energy responded to his ki senses.

When he saw blood splashed onto the rocks further down that was his first sign of his nemesis ever being down here. The rocks turned into ore as he went deeper into the earth's crust. They had made a perfect monster out of that Mk II robot to have sent a single saiyan this far down.

"Vegeta? Please don't tell me you're down here!" The tunnel was growing smaller. Goku had to expand his shield, but there was little where else for the rocks to go. As he pushed the walls back, they bunched in tighter, and this made them grind too tightly. Smaller rocks started to fall, and as they did, a tremor down the length of the tunnel started. "Oh please be all right..." He knew his words were in vain. Vegeta had never been this unresponsive before, and his ki had never faded like that unless he... he had...

Goku went down ever faster and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. When he saw bits of debris he slowed down only enough to see what it was. Bits of shredded armour. A little further down relieved puddles of dark gore that had dribbled into crevices. And then, lying there in the dark of the silent underworld was Vegeta's white boot. Goku cut off his speed and lay in the tunnel, his shield still on to prevent rocks from coming down and landing on them. Vegeta lay on a bed of rock, his eyes closed, his hair and skin matted with gore. "V-Vegeta?" Goku raised a hand and reached out to touch Vegeta's boot. He waved it back and forth to get him to stir. There was little else he could do. The tunnel was tiny – as it had been formed by Vegeta's own body as he plunged down earth's crust like an inverted rocket. There was no way of getting around him. And Vegeta was not rousing.

Goku tried to reach in further.

Something was _not _right. Why was he still not sensing the saiyan prince's ki when he was right beside him?

As his hand extended further down, scoping for the prince's countenance his fingers at last brushed against Vegeta's partly opened lips. At first the contact revealed only wet blood. And then something else. Something bad. Vegeta was not breathing.

Goku had never sworn in his life, until today. "Shit! Oh, oh shit!"

He grabbed Vegeta's wrist in a steel grip and he closed his eyes, knowing that the only sure-fire way out of this was to successfully teleport him out of this tomb. Goku hated teleportation. It was a massive expenditure of ki, and he didn't always end up where he had intended to go. Even after much practise, he preferred the more straightforward approach of flying manually when there was sights to be seen and journeys to be taken than just _fast-forwarding_ all the time. So he had given up the art, only finding that he needed it now more than ever.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Dib07:** I apologize in advance for the swearing involved in this chapter. And this time I can't blame Vegeta. Please enjoy this newest update.

**Nightwish**

**xxx**

**Chapter Two: Vegeta's End**

**xxx**

He didn't know why. And if he had been asked, he wouldn't have given a straight answer.

In order to teleport he had to think of someone, rather than a place.

And the only one he could think of was Bulma.

So he ended up in the atrium, appearing crouched as he had been in the tunnel with Vegeta's wrist in one hand. Bulma had obviously been feeding the creatures and various other beasts that lived in Capsule Corp's little nature preservation, for she dropped the feed bucket the moment him and Vegeta appeared on the grass. Some of the shyer beasts charged away from the phenomenon. Bulma gaped, her eyes wide. The feed bucket rolled across the floor and stopped at a rock. Goku didn't really pay any attention to her. He knelt beside Vegeta and sat him up, both hands on his shoulders. "Wake up, Vegeta!" He shouted at him, giving him rough, hard shakes. "Come on! Wake up!"

"What happened?" Bulma's voice rose to a shrill cry. "Goku, answer me!"

"Bulma, get help!"

He regretted his command as soon as he gave it. Where could she go to get help? She wasn't the one with teleportation. But he couldn't leave Vegeta. He lay him back down again.

"I'm not going anywhere! Is he all right? Why isn't he responding?" She was tearing at her hair, and her eyes were streaming tears before she even knew what was going on. Goku on the other hand was shot for ideas. However there was one thing he was taught many years ago by his fellow Z warriors. Since their occupation was hazardous Krillin, Yamcha and Tien learnt a few basic first aid skills for the eventual – and passed some of that onto Goku when he trained with them. He had forgotten half of it, but there was one thing he had remembered.

He wet his index finger and lowered his hand so that his finger was directly above Vegeta's partly opened mouth. If Vegeta _was_ breathing, then Goku would be able to feel the faint brush of warm air on his wet finger. But there was no rush of air, and the prince's bloody chest wasn't rising. On top of that there looked to be something metal sticking out of Vegeta's left side, but that would have to wait.

Then he realized something horrid – he had missed it in his frenzied panic to bring Vegeta home. He could sense no ki from the small prince's body. None at all.

"He... he's not breathing..." Goku said numbly, leaning back with pure perplexity written all over his face. "I don't know what to do!"

"He's not breathing?! Oh dear god..." Bulma was kneeling by Vegeta's side and, having better impetus than Goku, pressed her fingers against the side of the small saiyan's throat. Goku waited a moment, almost forgetting to breathe himself. When nothing presented itself, Bulma's hand moved further up his throat and tried the other side. "I... I can't feel a pulse!" She cried, starting to stammer. "Remove his armour, quick!"

"I can't!"

"What do you mean you can't?" She almost screamed.

"There's a thing in his side! He'll..."

"Goku! Listen to me! I need to feel for a heartbeat! Remove the armour from his chest, _now _!"

Goku swallowed and concentrated his ki to his finger. The tip of his index finger glowed with bright white luminance and it pulsed in and out. Lowering his finger down, he guided it along the middle of Vegeta's armour. It was a careful job, and he tried to do it as quickly as possible. When the tough exterior snapped in half at the front, Goku pried them apart to expose the prince's chest. Again Bulma laid a hand on his inert chest.

"Anything?" Goku asked, nervous to the core. Vegeta just couldn't be dead, right? Not from that explosion, surely? Then again he had gone through about three miles of planet crust, but so what? Vegeta had been through a lot in his saiyan life, and it was just as well that he was tough. But to die... like... like this?

Bulma looked at him dead in the eye. Her cheeks were saturated with tears. "Goku, do you know CPR?"

"CP... what?"

"Don't you know any first aid?"

He shook his head dumbly. "I'm sorry, Bulma."

"What about Dende? Get him!"

"Bulma, are you saying that he's... dead?" He swallowed hard. "Then... then Dende can't resurrect people like that... if they're... if they're..."

"Get my dad!" She shouted tearfully. She sounded hysterical. She also sounded desperate. "Tell him it's Vegeta."

Goku nodded and flashed out of sight.

Bulma looked down at her prince. She had never done anything like this before, never would have imagined it either. She placed the heels of both her hands over Vegeta's breastbone, straightened her elbows and started to push down: hard. Sheknew she _had_ to stop crying. If she cried, she would never have the strength to do this.

She counted twenty compressions. Then she leaned down and opened his jaw. She only just remembered in time to pinch his nose shut with her thumb and index finger, and then she blew air down his throat. Out of the corner of her eye she saw his chest rise a fraction. But it wasn't enough. She would have to exhale harder.

She felt terribly alone - with her mind dark with panic.

She blew again down his windpipe: harder still, and his chest rose a little better in response to her efforts.

Without waiting to see if it would work (she knew in her heart that there was just no way – she had seen people being given CPR in movies and they always made it look so damn easy), she started the compressions again – pushing down even harder and faster. Even when Dr. Brief and Goku arrived at a run she didn't pause or take a moment to look up.

"Bulma, I brought my equipment. It's okay, you can move aside." She heard her father's voice but she couldn't stop. She just couldn't. And she wouldn't. Just when she had finished with the compressions and was about to begin nose to mouth, Goku slid his arms beneath hers and lifted her. She kicked out at once, screaming and shouting at him.

"No! No! Put me down! I need to save him!"

"It's all right, Bulma! Easy! Your dad's got this."

She froze, her panic clearing just a little. Her father had set down some equipment – machinery that he usually kept locked in medical storage. It was an old set of defibrillators and an oxygen apparatus, complete with highly flammable oxygen tanks.

Moving quickly, Dr. Brief slapped on tiny sticker-like devices that were circular – like plastic disks – and they were attached to wires that fed into a tiny metallic box that even had a handle on its top for easy transport. Then Dr. Brief unhitched two handheld pads from the defib unit. "Goku," he said, "charge them. Hit the red button and then stand well clear."

Goku, hoping that Bulma would compose herself and keep calm, left her side to help her father. Sure enough there was a big red button on the side with the label next to it reading: 'Energy activation. Warning: High Voltage.' He pressed it and the defib machine, that was cylinder shaped, and reached up to Goku's shoulder, began to hum with energy. It was a heavy piece of machinery with wheels at the bottom, and if Goku had not been around to help, Dr. Brief would never have got all this equipment here so fast.

The defibrillator pads that Dr. Brief was holding began to whine and vibrate. Dr. Brief crouched low over Vegeta's body and pressed the pads on either side of his chest. The prince's little body arched, his limbs tensing. At first Goku felt an impression of Vegeta's ki, but then it faded away again like a breeze of wind. Vegeta fell inert once more and the defib units fell silent.

"Again Goku. Hit the red button."

Bulma was shaking her head in denial of what was happening. Her legs had turned to jelly and she felt like she was going to be sick. "Why isn't it working?" She cried, her voice weak and croaky, "Why?" Then, in her dire despair and panic, turned to Goku. As he came back to stand with her after pressing the button on the machine she grabbed his gi and shook him. "Do something! You're a saiyan just like he is! Do something! You made this! You hurt him!"

"Bulma, I didn't do this, I swear it!"

She wasn't listening. "Help him! Oh gods, Goku! Help him!"

Dr. Brief pressed the pads on Vegeta the same as before, and again nothing happened after the brief but powerful electric discharge. The man paused and felt for a pulse. Goku stepped forward, in hope. But then his soul filled with sadness when Dr. Brief shook his head. "It's no good. He's gone." He said. "And his wounds are great. I'm... I'm sorry..."

"NO!" Goku grabbed Bulma before she could reach her father and no doubt do something stupid – or crazy. "Try again! Please try again!"

"You don't understand – it doesn't work like that!" Dr. Brief said. "I could try one last time, Bulma, but the readouts detected no electrical impulses in his body at all." He looked down at Vegeta. A soft breeze rustled his black hair. It also began to dry the blood on his lips. The man rose to full height after picking up the pads. "One last time Goku. Before you hit the button I want you to turn the grey dial next to it to another hundred volts. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir."

Goku approached the machine and saw the dial that Dr. Brief had described. He turned it to the right until it hit the marker that read '200 Voltage.' He gave Bulma's father a thumbs up to show that he had done it, and then he hit the red button. When that was done, Goku stood beside Bulma and took her into his arms. She was numb and shivery in his hold and at first only resisted him. But then she calmed down just enough to watch her father in anticipation.

_Come on, Vegeta. _Goku did not like this at all. The prince had to pull through, somehow. _Don't give up. Bulma's counting on you._

The pads were placed on Vegeta's chest and the same surge zapped through his body, only stronger this time. There was a spasm and Vegeta's back arched. Then Dr. Brief lifted the pads. Bulma could take it no more. She pushed herself from Goku's protective embrace and raced over to her fallen partner. She collapsed beside him and felt for a pulse in his throat. Her father looked on with pure sadness in his eyes. "I'm sorry, my daughter." He said. "But the machine wasn't enough. I tried. We all tried."

"No... no...!" Bulma couldn't believe it. This just wasn't happening! But as much as she tried to feel for what she hoped was there – what she almost imagined was there – there was no pulse. And no heartbeat. "VEGETA!" She howled at him. "Vegeta, you little bastard! Wake up! You can't do this to me! Oh god wake up! You bitch! You fucking bitch! I hate you! Wake up! WAKE UP!"

This time it was Dr. Brief who held her back. It was too much for her. She turned and buried her face against his shoulder. And then she began to sob loudly. Each lament shook her whole body.

Goku stood, frozen to the spot. He couldn't believe it either.

On the last deliverance of electricity from Dr. Brief's defib pads there had been a sense of ki again – Vegeta's ki. But like all the previous attempts, the shy mote of energy had dropped away to nothing.

Still, how could this be?

He looked at Bulma and felt his own heart wrench at the sight of her grief. Her son would be fatherless. And she would be a widow.

He stepped over to Vegeta's body and sat down beside him. It almost looked as though the prince was taking a nap. A nap he would never be waking from.

Goku felt his own eyes fill with tears. "This wasn't how it was supposed to be!" He cried, trying to control his sadness, but it made his voice crack. Then he decided he didn't care anymore. He wanted to cry. He gathered Vegeta's limp body into his arms and laid him on his lap. "This sucks! Why did we decide to use that android? I wish it had never happened!" He bent his head forward until his tears began to fall onto Vegeta's pale face. Some of his salty tears mixed with the dried blood on his face. "This is my fault! I should have done something! I should have protected you!"

TBC


End file.
